Replicator

The Replicator is a feature that allows to craft Components and Equipment for your crew without having to directly obtain them from missions or shuttle runs. Instead, Components, Equipment, and Schematics in a player's inventory are sacrificed as fuel to replicate a more desired item.

This feature is available for all players once a day; however players increase their maximum daily Replicator uses by one at VIP levels 4, 8, 12, and 14, for a maximum of five available daily uses at VIP 14.

The Replicator was released in update 1.4.0, on the 30/08/2016.

Usage
The Replicator can be found next to the "Build" button. When checking the drop locations of an object, the first link is to the Replicator.

Fuel efficiency
Components, Equipment, Replicator Rations, and Schematics can be used as fuel, and each will provide a certain amount of fuel points depending on its rank and type:

In general, Equipments are better fuel than Components, but are usually more difficult to obtain and arguably more precious. Schematics are worth the least individually, but are often obtained in bulk, potentially making them an excellent fuel source, especially for players who already have fully-leveled ships.

Crafting cost
The cost of an object depends on its rarity and on whether it is a component or an equipment. A player must provide sufficient fuel points (until it reaches 100%) and credits.

The cost does not depend on the nature of the object: replicating a very common drop has the same cost of replicating a very uncommon drop. In keeping with the Trek canon, Gold-Pressed Latinum can't be replicated.

You cannot overfuel the Replicator: if you pick 100 Components to fuel the crafting of a Basic Item, the Replicator will only accept 60 and the remaining 40 will be returned to your inventory.

However, you can slightly overfuel it when using more valuable fuel: you can craft one Common Component (25 fuel points) using two Super Rare Components (20 fuel points each), wasting 15 fuel points. In this example it is wiser to use a single Super Rare Component and fill the rest with lower-level items.

Tips
Deciding whether it's best to craft a Component or an Equipment depends on the final object.

For example, requires: The cost of replicating the ingredients on their own is 3880 fuel points and 540,000US$crd, while directly replicating the final item would cost 3440 fuel points and 250,000US$crd. However, if the player can craft and the  without replicating them, then they have to replicate only 4, for a cost of 1520 fuel and 360,000US$crd - less fuel but more credits than crafting.
 * 1
 * 1
 * 4

When deciding whether to replicate the finished object or its components, the recipe is extremely important. For some items with simple crafting recipes, patterns can be found. Considering for example the crafting of a that uses two of its more common versions to build at each level, let's compare the investment of replicating the equipment versus the investment of replicating its components:

The cost (US$crd) includes both the cost of replicating and the cost of crafting.

In this example, replicating lower tier items costs less fuel and credits but requires more time: a player could for instance decide that replicating 8 is a good compromise.

Replicating is extremely credit-intensive, especially with higher-quality items. For items with complicated build paths, the most efficient replication options may not be readily apparent: careful players should always do the math and consider all options before committing.